


You Can't Take the Sky From Me

by Waterfall



Category: Doctor Who, Firefly
Genre: Community: crossovers100, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-10
Updated: 2008-05-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 19:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/116022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waterfall/pseuds/Waterfall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This time the strangeness is not in her head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can't Take the Sky From Me

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** You Can't Take the Sky From Me  
>  **Fandom:** Doctor Who/Firefly  
>  **Characters:** The Eighth Doctor and River  
>  **Word count:** 483  
>  **Rating:** G  
>  **Prompt:** #015 - Blue  
>  **My crossovers 100 LJ table:** [Can be found here](http://waterfall8484.livejournal.com/99356.html).  
>  **Disclaimer:** The characters and situations portrayed here are not mine. Doctor Who belongs to the BBC and Firefly belongs to Mutant Enemy. This is a fan authored work and no profit is being made. Please do not archive this story without my permission.   
> **Author's Notes:** When I started writing this it was meant to be the Sixth Doctor, but it turned into Eight along the way. Apparently, according to vell_delarose, it can also be the Tenth Doctor if you ignore the cravat. :~)

The crowd flows around her and she drifts along with it, a tiny piece of blue in a throng of earthly colours. She chose the dress herself, loving it for the way it reminds her of the sky above her head and water seen from space. Gripping the fabric of her skirt with both hands, she thinks hard about flying and wraps her thoughts in shades of blue.

At first she ignores the man in the blue coat, believing that her thoughts are leaking out of her head again, like they sometimes do. But when he turns around and smiles at her she knows he're real, because she could never imagine those eyes. They sparkle with mirth, but behind that she can see his sadness, gathered up over many, many years. It makes her want to cry, to let go of her thoughts in a pale blueness that matches his stare.  
"You shouldn't be seeing this," he tells her gently, putting his hands on her shoulder. She shrugs, and fiddles with his cravat without meeting his eyes. (Once was enough, never again, there's already enough pain on _Serenity_ to fill her head to bursting.)  
"I can't help it."  
His hands rub her arms and back, and for the first time since she was very small she feels safe and protected.  
"I know."  
Suddenly she doesn't mind the sadness or the frightening weight of time that surrounds this man like a cloak. Moving closer, she clutches at his jacket – dark, dark blue like the deepest part of the sea – and whispers confidingly to it.  
"Sometimes it makes me scream, what I see." His arms wrap around her as she snuggles into his chest, wanting to step inside him and cover herself in his calm and, she realises, now completely silent mind. "Simon doesn't like it, so I try to pretend it doesn't happen, but it does."  
She feels his anger as it flares up, scorching her for a moment before he shoves it back behind the silence.  
"I'm sorry," he tells her, his mouth moving against her hair. She nods gravely.  
"It's all right that you can't help me. I can't help you either, so we're even."  
"But there _should_ be a way." Stepping back, he holds her at arms' length and looks into her eyes. "You're a brave girl, River."  
"Just because I have to be," she anwers him truthfully, thinking for a moment of how her life could have been in a different world. He smiles again, and this time it doesn't hurt to look into his eyes.  
"Aren't we all?" Bowing slightly, he offers her his arm. She accepts with a curtsey and a grin of her own, and they start walking towards _Serenity_. They may both be too hurt to heal, but at least for the next few minutes they can take comfort in the fact that they're not alone.


End file.
